The accumulation of ice and snow on driveways, walkways, steps, and other walking surfaces presents a slipping hazard to pedestrians. Aside from using manual labor to remove ice and snow from such surfaces, using shovels for example, conventional methods of treating ice and snow have involved the application of rock salt, or other ice and snow melting chemicals, in particulate form. Such ice and snow melting chemicals have generally been applied to the affected surfaces by hand or by a broadcast spreader to facilitate melting the ice and snow entirely, or to at least facilitate removal with a shovel. Various devices have also been proposed to facilitate melting ice and snow and which utilize electric power to generate heat to melt the ice and snow.
A need exists for an improved device that facilitates melting ice and snow and which can be quickly and easily applied to a desired surface and which does not require external power.